Short Summary

Initial computer projections showed that West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt's left-liberal coalition won a state election in North-Rhine-Westphalia and scored gains in another state election on Sunday (4 May).

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Initial computer projections showed that West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt's left-liberal coalition won a state election in North-Rhine-Westphalia and scored gains in another state election on Sunday (4 May).

More than three-quarters of the votes had been counted, and officials said the final result was likely to conform with the computer projections.

The elections in North-Rhine-Westphalia and Saarland were regarded as a significant gauge for the popularity of the present government. It was its biggest test before next year's Federal elections.

Nearly. 13 million West Germans -- about one third of the country's total electorate -- cast their vote. West German President Walter Scheel and former Chancellor Willy Brandt, chairman of the social Democrat Party, were among those who voted in Bonn.

It was not immediately clear from the early returns whether the coalition of Herr Schmidt's Social Democratic Party (SPD) and its small linear ally would get a majority in the Saarland Legislature, or whether the coalition and the CDU would finish with an equal number of seats.

The liberals -- the Free Democratic Party (FDP) led by Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher -- saved the slender coalition majority in North-Rhine-Westphalia, according to early returns.